Preaching Old Testament Narrative

See Steven Smith's post on preaching Old Testament narrative here.

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below.

Beth A. Berkowitz
Defining Jewish Difference: From Antiquity to the Present
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8971
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

Stéphanie E. Binder
Tertullian, On Idolatry and Mishnah Avodah Zarah: Questioning the Parting of the Ways between Christians and Jews
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9176
Reviewed by Michael Rosenberg

Markus Bockmuehl
Simon Peter in Scripture and Memory: The New Testament Apostle in the Early Church
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8667
Reviewed by Jean-François Racine

James L. Crenshaw
Reading Job: A Literary and Theological Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8672
Reviewed by Richard G. Smith

Detlef Dieckmann
«Worte von Weisen sind wie Stacheln» (Koh 12,11): Eine rezeptionsorientierte Studie zu Koh 1–2 und zum Lexem dabar im Buch Kohelet
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9030
Reviewed by Stefan Fischer

Laura Feldt
The Fantastic in Religious Narrative from Exodus to Elisha
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9020
Reviewed by Michael Hundley

Norman Habel
The Birth, the Curse and the Greening of Earth: An Ecological Reading of Genesis 1–11
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8968
Reviewed by Terence E. Fretheim

Steven A. Hunt, ed.
Perspectives on Our Father Abraham: Essays in Honor of Marvin R. Wilson
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8108
Reviewed by David M. Maas

Luke Timothy Johnson
Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9015
Reviewed by Richard Pervo

Johannes Unsok Ro, ed.
From Judah to Judea: Socio-economic Structures and Processes in the Persian Period
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9071
Reviewed by Jason M. Silverman

Ishay Rosen-Zvi
The Mishnaic Sotah Ritual: Temple, Gender, and Midrash
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8539
Reviewed by Aaron Koller

Jacques T. A. G. M. van Ruiten
Abraham in the Book of Jubilees: The Rewriting of Genesis 11:26–25:10 in the Book of Jubilees 11:14-23:8
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9046
Reviewed by John C. Endres, S.J.

Jason M. Silverman
Persepolis and Jerusalem: Iranian Influence on the Apocalyptic Hermeneutic
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9074
Reviewed by Bob Becking

Paul Trebilco
Self-Designations and Group Identity in the New Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8921
Reviewed by B. J. Oropeza

James Davila on Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

James R. Davila has an interesting piece on the recently published Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Volume 1 here. According to Davila, this new volume

"contains new translations of nearly fifty complete or fragmentary texts, most of which have not been published in any of the earlier pseudepigrapha collections and some of which have never before been translated into English. They are translated by experts from many languages, including Aramaic, Armenian, Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Old Church Slavonic, and Syriac. The reader of this volume will learn that other nonstandard ancient scriptures are quoted in the Bible. For example, the New Testament letter of James 4:5 may quote a Book of Eldad and Medad (cf. Numbers 11:26–29). Moreover, the Old Testament itself quotes many lost books, including the Book of the Wars of the Lord, the Book of Jashar, and the Book of the Acts of Solomon."

Sounds interesting. I would love to pick up this volume.

Audio for the Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop

Audio for the 2013 Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop featuring the book of Revelation can be accessed here. For individual messages you can use the links below.  

Preaching from the Apocalypse, Dr. Paige Patterson
The Letters to the Seven Churches, Dr. David Allen
Reasons Why We Should Preach the Christology of Revelation, Dr. Steven Smith
Understanding the Book of Revelation, Dr. Craig Blaising
Preaching Revelation 17, Dr. Paige Patterson

 

 

 

The Preacher and the Text or a Textual Preacher?

Phil Newton has a call to expository preaching here. He points out the inconsistency of claiming to have a high view of Scripture and then not really preaching the Scripture.

Gabriel Barkay Audio

You can access Dr. Gabriel Barkay's recent talk at the Criswell College here (scroll down to 10.7.2013). Or use this link to download or this link to listen. Unfortunately there is no video and the presentation used PowerPoint. But if you are somewhat familiar with Jerusalem you can figure some of it out.

One Year to Better Preaching

Daniel Overdorf's new book, One Year to Better Preaching: 52 Exercises to Hone Your Skills, looks to be a helpful resource whether one is a seasoned preacher who needs a refresher or a neophyte preacher looking to start off on the right foot. As the title suggests, Better Preaching is set up to provide one aspect of preaching per week to work on. I have only read the first three chapters but each exercise seems to focus on something worth working on. The chapters are long enough to explain the exercise but short enough for one to get started pretty quickly. Check out a free PDF of the first exercise here.

Thanks to the folks at Kregel for sending the free copy used in this evaluation.